Do you exercise power? Or do you lead?
When you're given responsibility and power, how do you respond? As Robert G. Ingersoll famously wrote about the glory of President Abraham Lincoln: "Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power."
As parents, managers, ministers, spouses, friends and employers, we all possess some degree of responsibility and power. How do we exercise that power? Do we use it as an opportunity to serve through leadership?
Since being named president of the United Church of God, I have found that the position permits wide latitude about how I may respond to certain things. While I have been experiencing this all of my life, my current role underscores even more the need and obligation to have the focus of a servant in everything I do. For example, in my current role,
- I can override many decisions that made by others—but I don't.
- I can ignore e-mail requests and phone call messages, but know that it's bad judgment.
- I am not compelled to take extra time to hear all sides of a story, but know that it's the best approach.
Paul and Peter in the New Testament offer up a considerable amount of sound advice in how to relate to people and work together. The nearly 2,000-year-old content they recorded actually makes for excellent management advice in the 21st century. I have rediscovered and reconfirmed a number of biblical secrets of working with others that can help you in your relationships and bring good outcomes.
What are they? Think about this for the first one:
In our interactions with one another what may seem "allowable" is often not the most expedient. This principle may seem simple, but it's too often overlooked.
In his relating to a variety of personalities and cultures in the first century, the apostle Paul wrote:
"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all…I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:19, 1 Corinthians 9:22).
This principle represents a vital key to promote a constructive effect on others. It helps us move forward to what we desire and seek in positive human relationships and consequences. This represents a central tenet to servant leadership.
Second, if you want to practice servant leadership—and I submit that you should—it's critical to win a person's trust and confidence.
This most often comes by meeting them on level terms, then sincerely appreciating, and subsequently championing, their good thoughts and recommendations. Giving broad ownership and sharing power thus transforms a good idea into reality.
Servant leaders provide sound foresight, discretion and guidance to promote an effective outcome. But at the same time they engage and collaborate with trusted coworkers to share in the creation and development of that good outcome. To achieve that requires humility, which represents the third biblical secret of securing good outcomes.
Note what Peter has to say about this. Breaking into a larger thought, we read:
"Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:5-6, emphasis added).
By meeting people where they are and serving them in a spirit of true of humility, a manager—a parent, a spouse, an executive, a friend—can move mountains. When servant leadership works, all meet a challenge together rather than confronting one another.
On the other hand, being self-willed, selfish, demanding your "right" to act as a parent, boss or leader, will not get you or your organization what you want.
So let's actively put the servant leader principles of discernment, sound judgment, humility, inclusion, collaboration and consideration into vibrant practice.
At every level where we may find ourselves, whether among coworkers, friends or family, these principles will net the reward of satisfying results. These results not only make us feel good. They will really move a family, a business, a church or any organized effort forward.
Do you simply exercise power in your daily relationships? Or do you lead? I invite you to think about it.
P.S. Do you have a personal story of applying these principles successfully? Please share it with me at victor_kubik@ucg.org.
